Francesc Toldrà i Carbonell. Músiques per a gralla

Contents

(Francesc Toldrà i Carbonell. Gralla Music)
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the gralla (a shawm) was prominent in certain areas of Catalonia (the Penedès and the Camp de Tarragona districts).
Gralla groups playing these shawms ' usually three of them plus a drum at that time ' played dance music, traditional intermezzos (e.g. the giant-parade sets, gypsy pieces, masquerades and human-castle pieces), and performed in celebrations and major festivities (carnival, Easter serenading etc.).
One of those groups, perhaps the most renowned one at that time, was the 'Colla dels Bastarons' of Vila-Rodona, and its members commissioned these ten pieces for gralla by Francesc Toldrà which we are presenting in this volume.